‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ Almost Had Another Avenger Cameo

Thanks to how heavily S.H.I.E.L.D. factors into the story of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” it’s no surprise that it ended up being a semi-“Avengers” reunion, with Nick Fury, Black Widow and Maria Hill all making appearances.

There was, however, one Avenger cameo that didn’t make the final cut.

On the Blu-ray for “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” it’s mentioned that one of the deleted scenes originally featured Hawkeye. It was later rewritten without Clint Barton and then dropped from the film altogether.

Speaking with Screen Rant, co-director Joe Russo explained what role Hawkeye would have played in the movie.

Spoilers ahead

According to the director, when Steve Rogers became a fugitive from S.H.I.E.L.D., the Hydra shell organization sent Hawkeye after Cap, but not everything was how it would seem.

“There was an awesome sequence where [Cap and Hawkeye] confronted each other in a ravine on the outskirts of D.C., and Hawkeye was shooting a series of arrows closing in on Cap…. And then Cap took him down,” Russo said. “[Cap] realized for the first time that Hawkeye was trying to trick S.H.I.E.L.D…. [Hawkeye] whispered something into Cap’s ear that Cap had a tracker on his suit and to punch Hawkeye to make it look real, because there was a Quinjet hovering above where they were watching the feedback back at S.H.I.E.L.D.”

It’s easy to image that scene being really cool, but ultimately Renner’s schedule didn’t allow for the appearance. The crew filmed a version of the scene without Hawkeye, but that was cut for pacing reasons.

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” will be available on Blu-ray and DVD on September 9.